"Truth is an amiable and delightful Object to the Eye of the Mind, but it is not easily apprehended by the Bulk of Mankind; especially if it be remote from common Observation, or abstracted from sensible Experience."
— Fordyce, David (bap. 1711, d. 1751)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
[s.n.]
Date
1745
Metaphor
"Truth is an amiable and delightful Object to the Eye of the Mind, but it is not easily apprehended by the Bulk of Mankind; especially if it be remote from common Observation, or abstracted from sensible Experience."
Metaphor in Context
Truth is an amiable and delightful Object to the Eye of the Mind, but it is not easily apprehended by the Bulk of Mankind; especially if it be remote from common Observation, or abstracted from sensible Experience. It requires strict Attention as well as an acute Perception to take it up in its pure intellectual Appearance, and the Memory must be tenacious to retain it long in that simple Form. 'Tis a hard matter to recover ... Minds from the sensible Circle, in which they are accustomed to go round, to turn their mental Powers in upon themselves, and give them a just Idea of Objects purely Intellectual. To aid their Conceptions therefore, as well as to fix their Attention, Truths they are unacquainted with must be explained to them, and pictured as it were to their Fancies, by those they know; and what is Sensible must, by some Similitude or Analogy, represent what is Intellectual. The Ideas must be cloathed in a bodily Form, to make it visible and palpable to the gross Understanding.
(p. 366)
(p. 366)
Categories
Provenance
Reading Wasserman, Earl R. "The Inherent Values of Eighteenth-Century Personification." PMLA 65.4 (1950): 435-63. p. 452.
Citation
8 entries in ESTC (1745, 1748, 1753, 1755, 1757, 1768).
Fordyce, David. Dialogues Concerning Education. 2 vols. (London: [s.n.], 1745).
Fordyce, David. Dialogues Concerning Education. 2 vols. (London: [s.n.], 1745).
Theme
Mind's Eye
Date of Entry
06/01/2006
Date of Review
10/10/2011
